Sacramento State football trailed Idaho State 16-14 late into the second quarter when the Hornets made a switch at quarterback going from junior Kaiden Bennett to freshman Carson Conklin.
This made Conklin the first true freshman quarterback to play in a game for Sac State since 2015. Conklin joined together with freshman running back Zeke Burnett to immediately leave their mark on the game.
A seven-play, 61-yard drive that ended in Conklin’s first-career touchdown pass to Devin Gandy.
“Honestly, I’m on cloud nine,” Conklin said. “Great team win, couldn’t have done it with anyone else. Wide receivers making plays, offensive line blocking their ass off, everyone played great.”
Sac State head coach Andy Thompson said the plan all along was to play Conklin in the second quarter of this game. Once Conklin got the hot hand, the team rolled with him for the rest of the game.
“Not surprised,” senior linebacker Brock Mather said. “I’ve been personally anxious to watch him get his opportunity. He’s got this unique little swagger to him, I knew when he got his opportunity he was going to poised.”
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The scoring didn’t end there, Conklin went on to complete 14 of his 21 passes for 235 yards and three touchdowns. Most impressive of which was a 35-yard strike to senior wideout Carlos Hill, which Hill promptly took to the house for a 69-yard score.
“That was pretty fun,” Conklin said. “I didn’t think he was going to get to it, but it was good to see. I got a good angle on it.”
Thompson wouldn’t say if the Hornets would go with a two-quarterback system next week, saying he wants to see what this week of practice looks like and will make the best decision for the team.
Burnett was another key piece to a dominant offensive showing, bursting onto the scene with a 55-yard rush to set up the second Hornet touchdown. He had another crucial 50-yard run that allowed Sac State to go up by eight points before the half.
“[Burnett] I think he had over 100 yards in the first half,” Thompson said. “Good to see a lot of the young guys get their first opportunity. Nice to see these guys’ hard work pay off.”
In addition to the freshman making a name for themselves, senior tight end Marshel Martin IV returned to his All-American form Saturday night. Martin went for six catches and 103 yards plus a touchdown, his first of the season.
Sac State’s defense had itself a bounce back game in a big way, not allowing any points and only allowing Idaho State across the 50-yard-line twice in the second half.
“Let’s put it together, stop making mental mistakes and let’s play our best half of football,” Thompson said was the message to his team at the half. “We wanted to make sure if they beat us, they beat us with their best, not us handing them things.”
The Hornets bottled up the best passing offense in the FCS to just 292 yards on 56 attempts, averaging 5.2 yards a pass. Prior to this game, Idaho State was averaging 8 yards on every completion.
It doesn’t stop there, this was utter domination by the Hornets defense, the likes of which they haven’t shown capable of all season. They only allowed 42 yards on the ground and turned the ball over five times, including four interceptions.
“Coming into this week we knew they were gonna try to spread us out and throw the ball,” Mather said. “Give all the credit to coach Thompson and all those coaches for putting us in position all week to make the plays that we did.”
Mather got his second interception of the season and third of his career. While junior safety Cameron Broussard, senior safety Kylen Ross and sophomore linebacker Mitchell Wolfe joined in on the interception buffet.
“Wolfe got himself one too,” Mather said. “Hopefully you can see on the film all of us on the sideline, I probably hit my PR on my vertical jump. I was so excited for him.”
For weeks, Thompson has hammered home that the Hornets have yet to play a complete game in all three phases.
“I think we saw a glimpse of what this team can look like when offense, defense, special teams play together,” Thompson said. “We wanted to play four quarters and I think we got closer to that tonight.”
The Hornets hit the road for a game against, Thompson’s alma mater, the Montana Grizzlies Saturday at 6 p.m.
